New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS): An epidemic prevention employee from Central China's Henan province reportedly conducted nucleic acid tests on local garlic sprouts growing in the greenhouse, triggering a discussion on Chinese social media platforms, the Global Times reported.

The local government responded that affected by the epidemic, hundreds of tons of garlic sprouts had become difficult to sell. To ensure the vegetable is Covid-free, buyers asked local farmers for test certificates of the garlic sprouts. As a result, the local government decided to collect the results of nucleic acid tests on these vegetables to release the pressure from local farmers, the report said.

The video of the employee conducting nucleic acid tests on garlic sprouts has attracted much attention on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, with many netizens joking.

"It's the funniest and weirdest Covid-19 test I've ever seen," wrote a user.

"Both the buyers and sellers were overly cautious," one netizen commented, "But testing is better than getting infected without knowing."

By Sunday, one new local confirmed case was reported from Henan province, with at least another eight provincial-level regions, including the capital Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, reporting new local infections.

"It's understandable why local governments are so cautious, but hopefully they can make more rational plans," another netizen wrote.